Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag has axed Phil Jones and four other players from the club’s first-team dressing room in order to accommodate new signings.
Although United endured a slow start to the transfer window, Ten Hag was backed with huge funds in a bid to overhaul a team that slumped to United’s worst-ever finish in the Premier League last season.
Tyrell Malacia, Christian Eriksen, Lisandro Martinez, Casemiro, Antony and Dubravka have all arrived at Old Trafford over the summer for a combined sum of around £220m – the largest amount United have ever spent in a single transfer window.
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The influx of new signings has left the club’s first-team dressing room at their Carrington base at breaking point.
And according to The Sun, the AON Training Centre’s first-team changing room can only accommodate a maximum of 24 players… meaning they have been forced to a shunt a number of fringe players into the U23’s changing area.
Jones is the biggest name to have been culled by Ten Hag in order to make room for the club’s new arrivals, the England defender still at Old Trafford despite seeing his career wrecked by injury.
And Brandon Williams, who spent last year on loan at Norwich City, has also been sacrificed.
Defenders Axel Tuanzebe and Tegen Mendi are the two other players to have been moved along with youngster Shola Shoretire.
